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The largest Pentecostal Christian congregation in South Korea and the world, Yoido Full Gospel church, has come under fire as its founder and senior pastor Cho Yong-gi along with his two sons await trial on embezzlement and tax evasion charges.

Pastor Cho Yong-gi, often referred to as the “Pope” or near god-like figure in his an iconic, mega-church with more than 20,000 worshipers attending his church in each of seven Sunday services, now faces ugly accusations, including breach of duty and tax evasion involving tremendous amount of money.

The Prosecutors’ Office indicted Cho on June 9, 2013 on charges [ko] that he caused 15.7 billion won (14 million US dollars) worth of losses by directing church officials to buy stocks privately owned by his son, at prices four times higher than market value.

Image of Yoido Full Gospel Church, The red building complex all belongs to the church (several minor buildings don't appear in the photo). Image by Flickr user uselesswork (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

The pastor, additionally, is accused of evading 3.5 billion won (three million US dollars) in taxes. His eldest son, former chairman of daily newspaper Kookmin Ilbo which was launched by the Yoido Full Gospel church [ko], is already in prison on charges that he embezzled the company's money. Among several minor lawsuits surrounding Cho's family, there is an even incident that a Kookmin Newspaper's labor union leader was fired for criticizing Cho family [ko], but he eventually won the lawsuit.

South Korea ranks as one of the most Christian countries in East Asia. Over the last decade, however, the number of Protestants has made a sharp downturn [ko] and it has become increasingly unpopular among the younger generation as more disturbing news came about on several pastors’ sexual assault cases and prominent churches turning partisan in favor of the ruling political party.

@jirisan99: Yeoido Full Gospel church’s Pastor Cho Yong-gi and his two sons will all be standing before the court for breach of duty charges Link to article [ko] The church made into the Guinness Book of World Records for being the biggest single church in the world- no wonder the sheer scope of [their failure] is unprecedented.

@syh24: Senior pastor of the Yoido Full Gospel church and his sons are being summoned to the courtroom, under the charge of breach of duty and tax evasion. This pastor, came to stand up in front of a secular court, not the god’s court. How can you preach God’s word when you can't even follow ordinary secular law? Aren't you just ashamed of yourself?

The Yoido Full Gospel church released a statement [ko], arguing the “church’s decision-making process is different from a regular private company” and “the senior pastor does not have a great knowledge in professional areas such as taxes and stocks”. About 160,000 church members have filed a petition [ko] that they don't want any legal punishments for Cho.

However, net users have questioned such claims and pointed out it may not be a simple mistake or unintentional error:

@pattyy0098: Those church people signing the petition and protesting back, [please wake up.] It is not like Pastor Cho Yong-gi is climbing up the Calvary carrying a cross. He is going to meet a Prosecutor for investigation because he did something wrong. And you already knew that it is not his first time. [read previous GV article]

@ddanziabba: [quick timeline] The 28 church elders have sued Cho Yong-gi. Cho decided to punish those 28 elders. Cho was indicted for breach of duty. The Christian Council of Korea (CCK) suggested Cho to be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. How can we understand this timeline? Do they think they can totally ignore the “consequences of their actions” because they are the church?

Let this man go! This doesn’t make any sense Because this man is a man of prayer
And I believe God is with him still.

Rudolph Smith

I watched the Korean equivalent of ’60 Minutes’ do a piece on this only a few days ago. Even the church members who exposed the whole thing said it could have been resolved ‘in house,’ but pastor Cho didn’t come forth clean when he had the chance and tried to cover up the whole thing.
Christain doctrine encourages brethren to resolve matters civilly ‘in house.’ But that could only happen when people are willing to come clean and ask for forgiveness.

Pastor Cho and those involved should be prosecuted. Why do some people think that it’s less of a crime when a pastor or a priest commits one? Does God favor pastors over the average believer? Judging by the the lengths that some of the church members have gone and what they’ve said, seems to me that he is idolized. Does he have a V.I.P. Holy Spirit while the rest have a generic One? Wake up people. Respecting a pastor is one thing, idolizing one is another.

Last, people tend to discredit the validity of God’s message after incidents like this. I hope people differentiate between God and his message, and the fallibility of man.

Gary Kinsley

When money gets in the way, things happen like this. It’s called Greed.